An estimated 238,000 people filed initial claims for unemployment benefits last week, up 4,000 from the previous week, according to data released Wednesday by the Labor Department. The latest increase brought the four-week average of initial claims to its highest level since August 2023.
Americans are also staying unemployed for longer: Continuing claims, filed by people who have been receiving benefits for at least a week, rose to the highest level since November 2021.
Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust, told CNN they were closely watching the monthly jobs report’s underlying data point, “number of people unemployed by reason for unemployment.”
“The three-month average is about 200,000 more than last year,” Tilley said. “And the year-over-year measure of full-time job losses is almost never positive during economic expansions. It never was positive between 2010 and 2019, and it never was positive between the 2001 tech bust recession and 2008.”
“Looking at the numbers alone, this looks like very strong employment growth, but if you look at it more closely, you see that the labour market is normalising and there are risks of a downturn,” he added.
Still, other indicators of layoff activity haven’t shown a worrying surge.
Data released Wednesday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed that while U.S.-based employers announced fewer job cuts last month than they did in May, the number of reported layoffs remains well above last year’s figures.
The outplacement and workplace research firm counted 48,786 job cuts announced in June, down about 24% from the 63,618 announced in May but 19.8% higher than the 40,709 announced in June last year.
